{photo by Kary Antoniadis}
Wasn't last Friday's Civil War Picnic amazing? What a treat to celebrate this trimester's history together. Thank you to everyone who worked and helped and donated and set up and cleaned up and dressed up and played and participated to make it a memorable afternoon! And now, on to today's magical moment…
Kary and Jimi Antoniadis are a Track B family finishing their first year here at SLO Classical, with daughter Antonia in Kindergarten. Kary wrote in about several magical moments their family experienced as their daughter made tons of connections to her kindergarten literature while on vacation. Read on!
We had a very magical moment recently at… where else? The Magic Kingdom (aka Disneyland). The first ride we went on was one we had never tried: Finding Nemo Submarines. As we began to submerge the first thing we saw were clusters of mussels along the reefs, and the first thing Antonia shouted was “Look, this is just like what Eva must have seen (referring to the character Eva in the book The Very Last First Time).
The next ride we went on was “It’s A Small World”, and as we began our journey the first group of international dolls we saw were Eskimos, to which Antonia commented, “Look, Inuits like Eva’s family”. Well then… our journey this year through the Five in a Row literature series took off as my husband Jimi, Antonia and I named off different stories while we passed along the adorable characters from different countries.
When we passed the dolls from China, one of us called out “A Pair of Red Clogs!” Japan: “Grandfather’s Journey!” The American Southwest: “Roxaboxen!” Scotland: “Wee Gillis!” … and of course when Antonia saw the gondoliers from Venice, she enthusiastically shouted out her favorite of the year, “Papa Piccolo!” It really brought a new dimension to our morning and it was so wonderful to travel through this timeless and heartwarming ride and have our family make these connections to all the excellent books in the Five in a Row Series.
We look forward to a new adventure as we jump into 1st grade in the fall, but will always treasure Antonia’s kindergarten year as well as the literature stories we read which made us laugh, brought us to tears, and took us around the world.
Thank you, Kary – what a sweet way to end a magical year!
